Warming to cost industrial nations $100bn per year

Among the proposals for funding the costs of adapting to climate change at the ongoing UN inter-governmental meeting in Bonn is one by G77 and China. The proposal would amount to between 0.5 to 1% of GDP, mostly borne by industrial countries, reports Darryl D’Monte.

worldUpdated: Apr 07, 2009 01:03 IST

Darryl D’Monte Hindustan Times

Among the proposals for funding the costs of adapting to climate change at the ongoing UN inter-governmental meeting in Bonn is one by G77 and China. The proposal would amount to between 0.5 to 1% of GDP, mostly borne by industrial countries.

According to the international NGO Greenpeace, this would amount to over $100 billion a year up to 2020, in addition to aid. However, this group of 130 countries wants the fund to be managed by a more democratic institution than the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank in Washington. They expect developing counties, which will be worst hit by climate change, to be equally represented on the board.

Greenpeace criticised the Global Environmental Facility, comprising the World Bank, UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme, for lack of transparency in disbursing the $500 million — which was meant to help the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.

Antonio Hill, Oxfam’s senior climate change policy advisor, said: “The Obama administration has breathed a new life into the climate talks, but the air will quickly turn stale if rich countries don’t make real progress soon. Rich countries must show that they are willing to play their part – commit to combined emissions reductions of at least 40% on 1990 levels by 2020 and deliver the financial support needed to help developing countries adapt to climate change.”

Indian negotiators in Bonn are also upset that the two crucial working groups aren’t including “historical emissions”, which refer to the past build-up of gases in the atmosphere, and that some countries want to do away with the Kyoto Protocol architecture altogether.